News of Wales - Issue 1
October 2005
Profile of Welsh Council Chairman Dr Tony Calland
Though born in Colchester, Dr Tony Calland has a vast experience of the NHS in Wales. In fact, he has endured eight reorganisations of the health service since coming into general practice in 1973 and still lives to tell the tale.
He decided on a career in medicine after watching Dr Finlay’s Casebook on television. “This programme seemed to capture the ethos of caring for people throughout their lives and sharing their trials and tribulations as well as one’s own. In a professional yet social setting,” he said. “This holistic approach is still there today – just – but is in serious danger of being lost for ever from general practice. It remains to be seen if this is progress or not.”
He qualified from Liverpool University in 1970 and decided to go into general practice.
Dr Calland has now been a GP in the Wye Valley for many years, but he’s also an astute medico-politico doctor: one who has worked hard on behalf of his profession, and indeed the wider NHS. He became involved in medical politics through the Gwent LMC and worked his way through the myriad BMA committees and various other NHS bodies: GPC negotiator, chair of the primary care development sub-committee, GPC observer to RCGP council, non-executive director of Gwent Health Authority, member of Monmouthshire LHC, chair of Monmouthshire Healthcare Consortium and chair of Gwent LMC - all roles which have given him the valuable experience necessary to be Chairman of Welsh Council.
His first BMA chairmanship was of the Welsh GMSC, as GPC Wales was at that time, and he remained in that post for longer than anyone else previously.
When he stood down to become chairman of Welsh Council, he said of his time as chairman of GPC Wales:
“Over my time in the job it has changed immensely - its political element has grown since devolution. In the days of the Welsh GMSC, politically controversial comments would not have necessarily become a disaster zone. Now in the full glare of political scrutiny, every last word, phrase and inflection has to be carefully considered before one opens one's mouth.”
“The chairman should aspire to statesmanship. This will allow important points to be made with force and focus when necessary, but also allows soft peddling when there is no purpose to be gained from point-scoring.
“One always has to remember that when dealing with politicians, humiliating them is seldom helpful, and one never knows when they may return as the Health Secretary. Humiliation is long remembered and can induce very negative behaviour in retaliation.”
Since becoming Chairman, Dr Calland has taken an active role in the day-to-day work of BMA Cymru Wales – especially in relation to the National Assembly.
His ‘weeping with despair’ outburst last year when he described the state of the NHS in Wales, now appears on the record in newspaper files, in radio and television archives and on the world wide web
For relaxation, Dr Calland likes to eat good food, drink fine red wines, play golf and tennis and grace the ski slopes.
He has three sons: one banker, one barrister and one teenager.